Arabic chat alphabet

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Arabic alphabet
ا    ب    ت    ث    ج    ح
خ    د    ذ    ر    ز    س
ش    ص    ض    ط    ظ    ع
غ    ف    ق    ك    ل
م    ن    ه‍    و    ي
History · Transliteration
Diacritics · Hamza ء
Numerals · Numeration
v • d • e

The [Anglo-]Arabic chat alphabet, along with the analogous (Teuto-Arabic) Arabisch (in turn, anglicized "Arabish")[citation needed], (عربيزي ‘Arabīzī [1], and Franco-Arabe (anglicized "Franco-Arab" or simply "Franco"), is used to communicate in the Arabic language over the Internet or for sending messages via mobile telephones when the Arabic alphabet is unavailable. It is mainly a character encoding of Arabic to the Latin alphabet (ASCII). Users of this alphabet have developed some special notations to transliterate some of the letters that do not exist in the Latin alphabet (ASCII).[2]

There are no strict rules for conversion into Arabic chat alphabet; the table below represents how Latin alphabets (ASCII) are primarily used. Usage varies greatly by accent and country.

It is an SMS language that allows SMS text messages to be sent in Arabic on a Latin-alphabet keypad. Arabic letters are replaced by letters that are phonetically equivalent, or nearly equivalent, in English or another western-European language. Arabic letters that have no Latin phonetic counterpart are represented by numbers, or numbers in conjunction with an accent mark.

Contents

[edit] History

During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become increasingly prevalent in the Arab world; for example, personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging. Originally, most of these technologies provided users with only the Latin alphabet (ASCII). (Some still lack the Arabic script.) When communicating via these technologies, therefore, Arabic-speakers used the available Latin characters to compose messages in a transliterated form of Arabic. To handle those Arabic letters that have no phonetic approximate in the Latin alphabet, other characters, including numerals and punctuation and would be appropriated, especially when there were some visual resemblance. For example, the numeral "3" is used to represent the Arabic letter "ع" ("ayn").

There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, as it is relatively young and is only used in an informal setting. Some people have named it Arabic chat alphabet because it was most often used to communicate on online chat services; the main name is "Aralish" or "Arabish" (a portmanteau of "Arabic" and "English"). "Arabish" is like "Spanglish" which is a combination of Spanish and English, and is commonly spoken by younger generation, speakers of both languages. The most frequently used term for such transliteration in Modern Standard Arabic is عربية الدردشة (ʿarabiyyat ad-dardašah), literally "Chat Arabic."

Though Arabish was once a necessity for sending SMSes in Arabic, phone service providers now widely offer Arabic alphabet support. Despite this, use of Arabish continues, in part due to its popularity, and in part due to its usefulness in transliterating Arabic to English.

Some Pan-Arabists view Arabish as a detrimental form of Westernization. Arabish emerged amid a growing trend among Arab youth, especially in Lebanon and Jordan, to incorporate English into Arabic as a form of slang. Arabish is used to replace Arabic script, and this raises concerns regarding the preservation of the quality of the language (see also: Arabic and Islam).

[edit] Usage

Online communication, such as IRC, bulletin board systems, and blogs, are often run on systems or over protocols which do not support codepages or alternate character sets. This system has gained common use and can be seen even in domain names.

It is most commonly used by youths in the Arab world in very informal settings, for example communicating with friends or other youths. The Arabic Chat Alphabet is never used in formal settings and is rarely, if ever, used for long communications. The length of any single communication in ACA rarely if ever exceeds more than a few sentences.

Even though the Arabic language is well integrated with modern versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, people still use it in Arabic Internet forums and instant Messaging programs such as Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger because they don't always have Arabic keyboards, the difficulty of typing in Arabic, or because they are more used to the Latin alphabet layout (QWERTY) for typing.

[edit] Comparison table

Because of the informal nature of this system, there is no single "correct" way (e.g. kh, 5, 7' or '7, which are used for خ). People who are more familiar to French orthography, use ch, i, ou, ou- instead of sh, ee, oo, w- (respectively).

Most of the characters in the system make use of the roman character (as used in English or French) that best approximates phonetically the Arabic letter that one wants to express (for example, ﻙ corresponds to k). This may sometimes vary due to regional variations in the pronunciation of the Arabic letter (e.g. ﺝ might be transliterated as j in the Gulf dialect, or as g in the Egyptian Arabic).

Those letters that do not have a close phonetic approximate in the Latin alphabet (ASCII) are often expressed using numerals or other characters. These have been selected so that the numeral graphically approximate the Arabic letter that one wants to express (e.g. "ع" is represented using the numeral 3 because the latter looks like a horizontal reflection of the former). This usage is similar to a subconvention in the l33t form of text communication, wherein Roman letters are replaced with similar-looking numbers or symbols (e.g. $ for "S", 3 for "E", and 4 for "A").

Since many letters are distinguished from others solely by a dot above or below the main character, the conversions frequently used the same letter or number with an apostrophe or grave added before or after (e.g. 3' is used to represent "غ").

Arabic Chat IPA Formal transliteration
ء 2 , ' /ʔ/ ’
ع 3 /ʕ/ ‘
غ gh , 3' , 8 2 /ɣ/ ( /ʁ/ ) gh
ح 7 /ħ/ ḥ , Ḥ
خ kh , 5 , 7' /x/ kh
ص s , 9 2 /sˁ/ ṣ , Ṣ 1
ض d , 9' 2 /dˁ/ ḍ , Ḍ 1
ط t , 6 2 /tˁ/ ṭ , Ṭ 1
ظ z , 6' 2 /zˁ/ — /ðˁ/ ẓ , Ẓ , DH 1
ق 2 — ' , q 4 , k 4 , 8 2 , 9 2 /ʔ/ — /q/ — /k/ ’ , k , q
ا a /æ(ː)/, /ɑ(ː) ~ a(ː)/ a , aa 2
ب b /b/ b
د d /d/ d
ذ d , z , dh 4 /d/, /z/, /ð/ d , z , dh 4
ف f /f/ f
ه h /h/ h
ج g — j 3, 4 /ɡ/ — /ʒ ~ d͡ʒ/ g — j 3, 4
ك k /k/ k
ل l /l/ l
م m /m/ m
ن n /n/ n
ر r /r/ r
س s /s/ s
ش sh — ch /ʃ/ sh — ch
ت t /t/ t
ث s , t , th 4 /s/, /t/, /θ/ s , t , th 4
و w , o , u , ou , oo /w/, /o(ː)/, /u(ː)/ w , o , u , ou , oo
ي y , i , ee , e /j/, /i(ː)/, /e(ː)/ y , i , ee , e
ز z /z/ z
  • 1: In the middle of words, capitalization might be used, but usually it is ignored.
  • 2: Not widely used.
  • 3: ج is pronounced [ɡ] mainly in Egypt, [ʒ] in North-west African countries and Lebanon, and [d͡ʒ] in most of the Levant (Syria, Palestine, Jordan) and the Arabian Peninsula. For more, see gīm
  • 4: Depends on the vernacular.
  • The "Formal transliteration" is written in formal writings; such as in proper names and on maps, and can be used in chatting.

[edit] Examples

[edit] Egyptian Arabic

انا رايح الجامعه الساعه 3 العصر
Arabizi transliteration: ana raye7 el gam3a el sa3a 3 el 3asr.
International Phonetic Alphabet: /ʔænæ rɑːjeħ el gæmʕæ ʔes.sæːʕæ tælæːtæ.l ʕɑsˤr/
English translation: I'm going to college at 3pm.
الجو عامل ايه النهارده فى اسكندريه؟
Arabizi transliteration: el gaw 3amel eh ennaharda fe eskendereya?
International Phonetic Alphabet: /el gæw ʕæːmel e(h) enːæˈhɑrdɑ f.eskendeˈrejːæ/
English: "How is the weather in Alexandria today?"

[edit] Lebanese Arabic

كيف صحتك، شو عمتعمل
Arabizi transliteration: kif/keef sa7tak, chou/shu 3am ta3mil?
ALA-LC: kīf ṣaḥtak, shū ‘am ta‘mil?
International Phonetic Alphabet: /kiːf sˤɑħtæk ʃuː ʕæm tæʕmil/
English translation: How is your health, what are you doing?

[edit] Modern Standard Arabic[citation needed]

  • "Modern Standard Arabic" is rarely used in chat.
هذه ويكيبيديا الموسوعة الحرة
Arabizi transliteration: hazihi wikibedia al mawsu3a al 7ora.
ALA-LC Romanization: hādhihi wīkībīdiyā al-mawsū‘a al-ḥurra.
English translation: This is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
ذهب مع الريح
Arabizi transliteration: zahab ma3a ar ree7
ALA-LC: dhahaba maʿa ar-rīḥ
English translation: Gone with the Wind
كيف الطقس اليوم في مدينة الرياض؟
Arabizi transliteration: kayf a6 6aqs al yawm fi madinat ar ryad?
ALA-LC: kayf(a) al-ṭaqs(u) al-yawm(a) fī madīnat(i) al-Rīyāḍ?
English: How is the weather in Riyadh today?
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Arabizi: As-salam(u) 3aleykum, wa ra7mat(u) Allah wa barakatuh(u)
ALA-LC: Al-salam(u) ʿalaykum wa-raḥmatu Allah wa-barakātuh(u)
English: "Peace be with you and God's Mercy and Blessings upon you" (a common Islamic greeting)
بريطانيا العظمى
Arabizi: bri6ania al3o'6ma / britanya al 3ozma
ALA-LC: Brīṭāniyā al-ʿuẓmá
English: Great Britain

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Yaghan, M. (2008). "Arabizi: A Contemporary Style of Arabic Slang. Design Issues 24(2): 39-52.
  2. ^ David Palfreyman; Muhamed al Khalil (November 2003). ""A Funky Language for Teenzz to Use": Representing Gulf Arabic in Instant Messaging". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (USC Annenberg School for Communication) 9 (1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol9/issue1/palfreyman.html. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Internet dialects
See also Internet slang (at Wiktionary) · SMS language
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